Archigram: Architecture Inside Out

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Archigram: Architecture Inside Out Archigram: Architecture Inside Out By Crystal Ray Submitted to the Department of Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science as recommended by the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. June 2011. ©2011 Crystal Ray. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. () ( Author Crystal Ray Department of Architecture May 20, 2011 Certified by / / F lo Lawrence Sass Associate Professor of Computation Department of Architecture Accepted by Meejin Yoon Professor of Architecture Director o the Undergr duate Architecture Program MAPWSSAC6HUS ETTS IN S T I TUT OF TECHN-OLOGY JUN 10 2011 L RA R IES ARCHIVES Committee THESIS ADVISOR: Lawrence Sass Professor in Computation Department of Architecture Archigram: Architecture Inside Out By Crystal Ray Submitted to the Department of Architecture on May 20, 2011 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science as recommended by the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abstract Plug-in city has been explored by others through 3d renditions, however, their 3D rendition are subject to interpretation as its design and development progressed through modeling and a series of drawings by Peter Cook. With the foundational skills gained from Professor Nagakura's courses, I worked over the semester to model and animate one of Archigram's most notable works, Plug-in City, with a focus on the city's dynamic transportation system for people and goods. Thesis Supervisor: Lawrence Sass Title: Associate Professor in Computation Acknowledgements Thanks to my family for their continual support, humor and love. Special thank to my advisor Professor Larry Sass for his patience, support and encouragement throughout this process. Thanks to Professor Takehiko Nagakura and his work in computation as it provided the foundational skills necessary for this project. Thanks to the members of the High-Power Electrodynamics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory for their support, encouragement, parties and giving me projects that gave me confidence to return to MIT to complete my degree. Thanks to CRONMW-09203 for not logging me out for 5 consecutive days so I could render! Thanks to the members of Archigram for their work that continues to intrigue me. Contents Acknowledgem ents....................................................................................................................................7 Table of Figures ........................................................................................................................................ 11 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 13 Background ........................................................................................................................ 13 Problem ............................................................................................................................. 14 Outline ............................................................................................................................... 14 Literature Review.....................................................................................................................................15 Leisure through Technology .......................................................................................... 15 Im agery ............................................................................................................................. 516 Plug-in City........................................................................................................................17 Design concept......................................................................................................... 17 Drawings ............................................................................................................................ 17 Structure Concept........................................................................................................ 19 M ethodology ............................................................................................................................................ 21 Rhinoscript ........................................................................................................................ 21 Structural Com ponents ................................................................................................. 22 Storyboard ......................................................................................................................... !23 Capsule ................................. ....................................................... 24 1st Tri alI......................................................................................... 24 2 nd Trial................................ ........................................................ 28 Capsule Tower...................................................................................................................(30 "Tubular Plum bing ........................................................................................................... 33 W alkways .......................................................................................................................... 935 Rendering.......................................................39 91 T im e................................................................................................................................... 39 Results and Discussion..............................................................................................................................(40 Previous W ork...................................................................................................................(40 Capsule Interio ................................................................................................................. 40 Capsule Exteriorio.................................................. ....................................................... 42 Stru ctu re ............................................................................................................................ 4 3 Issu es ................................................................................................................................. 4 4 Present Plug-in Architecture ............................................................................................. 44 Conclusion and Recommendations.................................................................................. 46 M o del ................................................................................................................................ 4 6 Rh in o script ........................................................................................................................ 7~4 M AX 5 ................................................................................................................................ 4 8 W o rks Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 4 9 Ap pe n dix A ............................................................................................................................................... 50 A p p en dix B ............................................................................................................................................... 51 10 I Table of Figures Figure 1 City Interchange by W arren Chalk and Ron Herron (AAP)........................................................................ 15 Figure 2 Plan drawing for City Center in Paris by Le Corbusier (Optimistic City Plans)........................................... 16 Figure 3 Cushicle M ichael Webb, 1966 (AAP)..............................................................................................................17 Figure 4 3D Axonom etric view of Plug-in City (AAP)................................................................................................. 18 Figure 5 Elevation of Plug-in City by Peter Cook (AAP) ............................................................................................ 18 Figure 6 Plug-in City Details by Peter Cook, 1964 (AAP).......................................................................................... 20 Figure 7 Elevation of Plug-in City with sections m ade distinctive by color pencils ................................................. 22 Figure 8 Sam ple Stor y Board ....................................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 9 Plan view of capsule as rendered in 3ds M ax ............................................................................................ 24 Figure 10 Capsule by Warren Chalk (AAP)...................................................................................................................24 Figure 11 Exterior view of Capsule......................................... ................ ................................................. 25 Figure 12 Exterior view of Capsule...............................................................................................................................26
Recommended publications
  • Beyond Architecture 227
    BEYOND ARCHITECTURE 227 Beyond Architecture: Technology, Freedom, and Play RENATA HEJDUK Arizona State University With apologies to the master, the house is close examination and comparison of the an appliance for carrying with you, the aforementioned practitioners is the idea of an city is a machine for plugging into. architecture that is itself mobile and/or transportable, or one that encourages the David Greene, Living Pod, 1966 mobility and freedom of the mind and body within its structures. The notion of "play" Given the recent interest in and enormous (Notes, 1) is often invoked in the amount of press given to architectural programmatic descriptions of these projects. environments that can move and be moved, The works discussed in this essay are mainly expand, plug-in, un-plug, tune in and turn on, theoretical, prototypical, or conceptual. this essay will provide a brief introduction to the cultural and philosophical framework that preceded and initiated this contemporary discussion. Themes of liberation and freedom were commonplace by the mid-1960s: the Civil Rights, Feminist, and Free-Speech Movements were only a few of the numerous peaceful (and not-so-peaceful) coalitions that formed under the banner of freedom. The historian Arthur Marwick notes that never before had society seen the development of such a large number of different subcultures all characterized by a trend toward freedom and permissiveness. (Fig. 1) This essay attempts to identify a line of thought that runs through the work of the British and European Radical Avant-garde of the 1960s and early 1970s. Archigram's groundbreaking magazine/ architectural telegram Archigram, particularly Figure 1.
    [Show full text]
  • South Bank Arts Centre
    PUBLIC SPACE AND THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT London Modernist Case Study Briefing (c. 2016 FABE Research Team, University of Westminster) SOUTH BANK ARTS CENTRE CONTENTS 1. CHRONOLOGY 3 2. POLICY AND IDEOLOGY 4 3. AGENTS 6 4. BRIEF 8 5. DESIGN 10 6. MATERIALS/ CONSTRUCTION 14 7. RECEPTION 16 BIBLIOGRAPHY 19 PROJECT INFORMATION Case Study: The South Bank Arts Centre (Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Purcell Room), Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX Dates: 1960 - 1968 (Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room opened March 1967; Hayward Gallery opened October 1968) Architects: Norman Engleback (lead architect), E.J. Blyth, J.A. Roberts, W.J. Sutherland, Ron Herron, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, John Attenborough, Bryn Jones (Hubert Bennett was the Architect to the GLC at the time.) Client: The London County Council and the Arts Council Contractors: Higgs and Hill Ltd., with Ove Arup & Partners as structural engineers and over 100 sub-contractors. Financing: London County Council (public funding) Site area: 21 acre site (Hayward Gallery ~ 20,000 sq ft. QEH ~ 13,000 sq ft) Tender price: Quoted £3.7 million (including the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall), actual approximately £7 million, of which £800,000 for the Hayward Gallery. 2 1. CHRONOLOGY 1943 Patrick Abercrombie and J.H. Forshaw identified the South Bank as a comprehensive development area in the County of London Plan (1943). 1948 Labour Government’s Clement Attlee announced Festival of Britain as ‘tonic to the nation’. 1949 Construction began on the Royal Festival Hall and the Queen’s Walk, a public boulevard and embankment extending from the County Hall to Waterloo Bridge.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Calgary Transvaluation of Architecture
    UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY TRANSVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURE: A PERSPECTIVE ON PERFORMATIVE VALUE IN ARCHITECTURE by KAMARAN ALI NOORI A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN THE FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN CALGARY, ALBERTA JANUARY 2011 © KAMARAN ALI NOORI 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-79656-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-79656-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciaies ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Archigram Pdf Free Download
    ARCHIGRAM PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Peter Cook, Michael Webb | 152 pages | 01 Sep 1999 | PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS | 9781568981949 | English | New York, United States Archigram PDF Book The first is that it is linear rather than circular. Master of Architecture Design. Attractions included a police van mired in the muck and goo of a forgotten cityscape, and an overturned pumpkin coach and horses with Cinderella tossed half outside of it. Search Search. Similarly with Archigram , whose vivid collages gave form and voice to a generation impatient with the dry prescriptions of mainstream modernists. Long overdue, Simon Sadler's book finally gives us a meticulous ideological history of the evolution of Archigram, one which will prove invaluable to all future accounts of British architectural culture during the s. Bringing these architectures to life, however, is where challenges arise. Every issue is reproduced in its entirety at high resolution and in full color. I had just unpacked all nine and a half issues of Archigram , and, frankly, I was a little giddy. All art gifts Stationery Gift vouchers. In depth details of how the megastructure, the cranes and the plug-in elements would be constructed is not evident as this was not the focus point of the project, rather the symbolization of technology and the opportunities it allowed. By Sarah Deyong. Ross Elfline rated it it was amazing Jan 11, About Contact Privacy Policy Advertise. Healthy High Density Cities Lab. More filters. This is not surprising: the Situationists are exciting ; Archigram is, in comparison, merely interesting , or at least far less dangerous. Return to Book Page.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Rogers 2007 Laureate Essay
    Richard Rogers 2007 Laureate Essay Revitalising Modernity By Deyan Sudjic Writer, architecture critic and Director of the Design Museum, London Richard Rogers collected the Pritzker Prize in 2007 in London in the magnificent setting of the banqueting hall designed by Inigo Jones, for the royal palace that he was never to finish for Charles I. The 17th century monarch’s reign came to an abrupt end when Oliver Cromwell had the New Model Army march him under the great ceiling painted by Rubens, through one of the hall’s windows, and onto a scaffold outside to be beheaded in the climactic episode to the English Civil War. Given that the king’s 20th century descendant, the Prince of Wales, the future Charles III, has been the most highly visible critic of contemporary architecture in Britain, it was perhaps a somewhat unlikely setting for a ceremony honouring one of Britain’s most prominent architects, especially for one associated with an embrace of modernity. Rogers has been the target of the prince’s criticism more than once. It was the prince who put an end to Rogers’ chances of winning the commission to rebuild Paternoster Square, the flawed 1950s setting for St. Paul’s Cathedral. Rogers’ entry was one of the competition’s most talked about submissions to build an extension on the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The competition precipitated the Prince of Wales’s intervention into the architectural debate with a famous speech in 1984, in which he called the project “a carbuncle on the face of an old and familiar friend.” The bitterness of those conflicts has faded, but at the time, they were vivid, and very real.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Paper
    a circus of ideas revisiting Archigram’s visions for edu cation and architecture in the information age neil selwyn london knowledge lab, uk june 2008 Correspondence: Neil Selwyn, London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, 23-29 Emerald Street, London WC1N 3QS, United Kingdom e: [email protected] t: +44 (0)20 7763 2151 f: +44 (0)20 7763 2138 2 a circus of ideas revisiting Archigram’s visions for education and architecture in the information age Abstract: The UK architectural collective Archigram are considered to have been one of the most innovative and influential design teams of the late twentieth century - responsible for a series of neo-avant-garde conceptual projects which railed against post-war modernism, embraced a new post-industrial technological era and set a precedent for much of what is now accepted as mainstream contemporary architecture. Anticipating neatly the concerns of a fast globalising world, the group’s designs proposed a reflexive form of architecture which was centred firmly around the needs, desires and demands of the modern citizen. As such Archigram’s work pre-empts many concerns later raised with regards to the ‘information age’ and can be seen as early expressions of now influential ideas of ubiquitous computing, personalisation, convergence, cyborg theory and network society. This paper argues that amidst the fulsome praise now directed towards Archigram’s designs for technological megastructures, capsule design, nomadic living and the like, the group’s work on educational architecture and imagined educational forms of the future has been somewhat overlooked – especially in terms of their envisaged convergence of education, technology and architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • In Beyond Archigram
    R THE STRUCTURE OF CIRCULATION HADAS A. STEINER I~ ~~o~;!~n~~;up NBNYO RKAND LON DON Frontispiece: MiKe Webb, Sin Poloce Escafators, 1959-62 Fim publishro 2009 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue , New YorK, NY10016 Simultaneously published i.n the UK by Routledge 2 Par, Square. Milton Par~ Abingdon. O.on. OX14 4RN Rout/~dge is on imprint of the Tayfor & Froncis Group, on informa business c 2009 HadasA. Ste iner Dl5igned and typeset by Sutchinda Rangsi Thompson/Crown4to Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press. Trowbridge, Wiltshire All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or uti lised in any form or by any electronic, mechdniC'il. or other means , now known or hereafter invented, including photoropying and recording. or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Brirish librory Caro/oguing in Publication Data A 03!<1logue record for this boo, is availabl, from th' British library Librory of Congress CoroJaging- in-Publicarion Daro A catalog m:ord for this book has been requl5ted ISBN10 0-415-39476-7 (hbk] ISBN10 0-415-39477-5 (pbk] ISBN13 978-0-415-39476-5 (hbk) ISBN13 978-0-415-39477-2 (pbk) PREfACE xvii CONTENTS PART ONE THE ARCHIGRAM NETWORK V Introduction: The Image of Change 1 Modern Architecture in England 38 City Synthesis 70 PART TWO BATHROOMS, BUBBLES AND SYSTEMS Bathrooms 118 Bubbles 149 Systems 182 The Technological Picturesque 222 NU 245 lUIS11IATION CR8IfTS 251 Not all [arch itectural] revelations have to be buildings. They could be a paragraph from Ruskin's Stones ofVenice, or Geoffrey Scott's Architecture ofHumanism, or even Asimov's Caves ofSteel.
    [Show full text]
  • Kester Rattenbury – Archigram Archival Project
    Kester Rattenbury Output 1: Archigram Archival Project, 2010 Abstract The Archigram Archival Project made the subject of the authors’ major essay included in works of seminal experimental architectural the project. group Archigram available free online for an academic and general audience. It was a The project thus hybridised several existing major archival work, as well as a new kind methodologies. It combined practical archival of academic archive, being purely digital, and editorial methods for the recovery, displaying material held in different places presentation and contextualisation of around the world and privately and variously Archigram’s work, with digital web design owned. It was aimed at a wide online design and with the provision of reflective academic community, discovering it through Google and scholarly material, and it aimed to be or social media, as well as a traditional highly accessible for both scholarly research academic audience, and it has been widely and casual browsing. It was designed by acclaimed in both fields. the EXP Research Group in the Department of Architecture in collaboration with Archigram The project has three distinct but interlinked and their heirs and with the Centre for elements. It’s first was to assess, catalogue Parallel Computing, School of Electronics and and present the vast range of Archigram’s Computer Science, also at the University of prolific, and varied work, of which only a Westminster. small portion was previously available. It’s second was to provide reflective academic The Archigram Archival Project was shortlisted commentary on Archigram and on the for the 2010 RIBA President’s Award for wider picture their work represented.
    [Show full text]
  • Fun Palace and Plug-In City — Architectural Modularism and Cybernetics in the 1960S
    Chapter 6. Dreams of The Fun Palace and Plug-In City — Architectural Modularism and Cybernetics in the 1960s Dr Claire McAndrew, UCL Institute for Digital Innovation in the Built Environment The Bartlett, University College London Introduction This chapter considers the neo-futurist visions of two architectural designs from the 1960s, Archigram’s Plug-In City1 designed by Peter Cook in 1964 and The Fun Palace2 conceived by Cedric Price in the same year. Each was radical in thinking around architectural modularism and in the case of The Fun Palace – the embrace of cybernetic thought. Their designs speculated on visions that were temporally adaptive and represented an idealistic belief in a better future, with an aspiration to drive flexibility and versatility from a collection of modular units that could be arranged and re-arranged, time and time again. Reversing the assumed stability of architectural form, The Fun Palace and Plug-In City were conceived as systems where human activity could control and modify the spatial form within which it was framed and so, ad infinitum. Blending modular architecture, technology and society, these two designs sought to provide liberation from modernism. Reviewing material made accessible through The Archigram Archival Project hosted by the University of Westminster and the Cedric Price Collection held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, this chapter examines some of the key expressions of neo-futurism captured by these 1960s designs. Through this commentary, it sheds light on the ways in which time has been conceived of being designed into the architectural fabric of cities, and how, through the examination of critical debates, we might find relevance for design history today and for the design of contemporary living in the digital age.
    [Show full text]
  • Expert's Statement Archigram.Pdf
    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief Description of item(s) The Archigram Archives is an archival collection of material produced by the internationally recognised 1960s architectural group Archigram. It comprises around 18000 drawings and photographic items, 17 models, over 400 video and audio tapes and around 60 boxes of documents and correspondence. The six core members of Archigram are (in alphabetical order) Warren Chalk (1927- 1987), Peter Cook (b. 1936), Dennis Crompton (b.1935), David Greene (b. 1937), Ron Herron (1930-94) and Mike Webb (b. 1937). The items in the archive range in date from 1954 to around 1975, with a small amount of related material from the 1980s and 1990s. The archive is in good condition, despite items having been stored over the years in domestic conditions or in temporary storage. 2. Context Selected Bibliography Peter Cook, Experimental Architecture (London, 1970) Peter Cook, ed. Archigram (London, 1972) Simon Sadler, Archigram: Architecture without Architecture (MIT Press, 2005) Exhibition history • Archigram: Experimental Architecture, 1961-1974 Opened at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (11 February-1 May 1994) and travelled to Paris, Zurich, Hamburg, Manchester, New York, Ithaca, Pasadena, San Francisco, Seattle, Milan, Brussels, Rotterdam, Winnipeg and Chicago between 1994 and 2003 before closing at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (15 March-8 June 2003). • Archigram (Baltic, Liverpool, 2004) • Archigram (The Design Museum, London, 2004) 3. Waverley criteria The item meets Waverley Criterion Three (Scholarship), being of outstanding significance in relation to architectural history. The Archigram Archives are a unique resource for the study of the Archigram group, one of the most innovative and influential collectives in twentieth-century architecture.
    [Show full text]
  • Arch 5124 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 2 Part 2C
    arch 5124 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 2 Part 2C 23 September 2013 13.7 Mb, 7,526 words Lecture 25: Late 20th Century (only) Wells Coates (1895-1958). Canada, London, Modernism, engineer, product designer. Sunspan Houses (1934-36). Only one with intended construction system built, at Mardley Hill, 1935. Lawn Road flats, Lawn Road, London (1934). Embassy Court Flats, King’s Parade, Brighton, East Sussex (1935), Shipwrights, Leigh-on-Sea, Benfleet Road, 1937. Palace Gate Flats, 10 Palace Gate, 1939. House, West Wittering, West Sussex, 1957-58. Lawn Road flats. 1 Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001). Greek architect-engineer, worked with Le Corbusier, and one of the most important post-war avant- garde composers. Under Le Corbusier, he collaborated on the design of Sainte Marie de La Tourette, Éveux, Rhône-Alpesnear Lyon (1956-60 and 1981), and alone designed the Philips Pavilion at Expo 58. In 1953-54, composed his first major work after studying with Olivier Messiaen, derived from an Einsteinian view of time and his own memory of the sounds of warfare, and was structured on mathematical ideas by Le Corbusier. His most important works include Metastaseis (1953–4) for orchestra, with independent parts for every musician of the orchestra, and percussion works eg: Psappha (1975) and Pléïades (1979). He wrote numerous theoretical works including Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition (1971).1 Sverre Fehn (1924-2009), Oslo, Modernism, architect and teacher, Oslo School of Architecture & Design and Cranbrook Academy of Art Michigan. Pritzker Prize 1997, leading Norwegian architect of his generation. travels in Morocco, he discovered vernacular architecture, which was to influence his work.
    [Show full text]
  • The First Part of the Research Will Deal with the Todays Implementation of Various Modes of Interaction Within Existing Buildin
    Modes of Interaction in Computational Architecture by Dragana Čebzan Antić A dissertation Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Centre for Cultural Studies) Goldsmiths, University of London March 2012 1 I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely my work ______________________________________ Dragana Čebzan Antić March 2012 2 Abstract This thesis is an enquiry into the importance and influence of interaction in architecture, the importance of which is observed through different modes of interaction occurring in various aspects of architectural discourse and practice. Interaction is primarily observed through the different use of software within architectural practice and in the construction of buildings, façades and systems. In turn, the kind of influences software has on architecture is one of the underlying questions of this thesis. Four qualities: Concept, Materiality, Digitization and Interactivity, are proposed as a theoretical base for the analysis and assessment of different aspects of computational architecture. These four qualities permeate and connect the diverse areas of research discussed, including architecture, cybernetics, computer science, interaction design and new media studies, which in combination provide the theoretical background. The modalities of computational architecture analysed here are, digital interior spaces, digitized design processes and communicational exterior environments. The analysis is conducted through case studies: The Fun Palace, Generator Project, Water Pavilion, Tower of Winds,
    [Show full text]